Chief scribe
It’s that time of year again when summer daylight saving time has just ended in Europe and the developers of the NTP time synchronisation service are responding to a series of new attacks with an update, German IT news site heise reports. With these attacks communication between servers and clients can be manipulated so that […]
Earlier this week academics from the University of Bristol presented new breakthroughs on two fundamental problems in computer science. These results were presented at the 56th annual IEEE symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2015) in California earlier this week, the University reports. One of the most challenging questions in computer science is whether […]
A new deal announced today between the Crown Commercial Service and open source consultants Collabora will provide public sector organisations with savings on GovOffice, an open source office suite based on LibreOffice. Collabora GovOffice is is compatible with both Google Docs and Microsoft Office (including the cloud version Office 365) and includes comprehensive support for […]
The good burghers of the Buckinghamshire market town of Chesham have good reason to rejoice, not just for living in the beautiful Chiltern Hills, but because they have the first smart pavement (highway engineers would call it a ‘footway’. Ed.) that provides superfast wifi to passers-by. Engineering and Technology Magazine reports that the wifi pavement, […]
Writing on The Document Foundation blog, Italo Vignoli has announced that a bug hunting session will take place from 30th October to 1st November for LibreOffice 5.1, the next planned major release of this popular open source office productivity suite. Over those 3 days, volunteers and members of the LibreOffice community will check the first […]
New quantum technology to ensure data is secure has won the University of Bristol’s equivalent to Dragon’s Den and a share of over £35,000 in prize money, the University reports. KETS, a company formed by Dr Chris Erven, Dr Jake Kennard, Phil Sibson and Professor Mark Thompson, uses quantum cryptography to improve data encryption – […]
For people who cannot read a map, the Linux operating system is invaluable since it runs many of the popular makes of GPS navigation aids available to the general public. A World Without Linux is a video series in 6 parts being produced by The Linux Foundation.
In the middle of last week, the Shropshire Star reported that the Shropshire and Marches Campaign for Better Broadband in Rural Areas, which has been campaigning for the last 3 years for better internet speeds in isolated communities, might be wound up. The campaign has been endorsed by 50 rural town and parish councils in […]
The University of Bristol has announced that the SPHERE (Sensor Platform for HEalthcare in a Residential Environment) project was featured at the London launch of IoTUK – part of a £40 million government investment in the
After six years of activity, the Free Software Foundation Europe’s (FSFE) PDFreaders campaign is coming to a close this month as one of the FSFE’s most successful campaigns. The campaign began in 2009 with the aim of removing advertisements for proprietary PDF reader software from public institutions’ websites. To start it all off, volunteers submitted […]
Today’s Bristol Post features a report entitled “Bristol best in UK for superfast broadband coverage“. To quote from the Post piece: You might think the capital would have the best superfast broadband coverage in the country. But it is Bristol which tops the UK instead. Figures from thinkbroadband.com, complied [sic] by the Computer Business Review, […]
Bristol City Council is not unknown for its commitment to open data. So far it has been building up open data resources in 2 distinct locations: its dedicated open data site and profiles – its data and maps resource about Bristol and its neighbourhoods. We have now received news from BCC’s Kevin O’Malley that At-Bristol, […]
Bristol University is currently involved in two projects that will put Bristol at the leading edge of the smart city movement.
UWE’s press office reports that the university is hosting a training camp designed for students interested in careers in cyber security. The camp, which takes place from 10-12th October, offers an opportunity to learn about cyber defence from experienced professionals. Around 40 candidates will spend three days living on site where they will get an […]
A new generation of digital devices that will protect consumers from cyber-attacks could be a step closer thanks to a grant of over £1 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) awarded to the University of Bristol for a research project to protect consumers’ sensitive data.
According to a study carried out by Markess International, the majority of local authorities should have initiated an open data process between now and 2017, French IT news site Le Monde Informatique reports. This type of project forms a springboard for digital transformation. While local government reform is is redrawing the local authority map, digital […]
The so-called “diesel dupe” in which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many Volkswagen and Audi cars sold in the USA had devices in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested and changed performance accordingly to improve results is having repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic. In the States […]
Below is the first of what will a series of videos seeking to depict what the world would be like had Linus Torvalds not released his kernel 24 years ago, with that kernel then being combined with the tools produced by the GNU project to create a powerful and reliable operating system. A World Without […]
The weekend just gone saw another anniversary that ought not be forgotten: the Free Software Foundation (FSF) passed the 30 years milestone. German IT news website heise reports that the FSF was founded by Richard Stallman (aka rms. Ed.) on 4th October 1985. At that time the organisation’s goal was fully consistent with the then […]
Although Linus Torvalds, the originator of the Linux kernel, announced his initial work on the kernel on 25th August 1991, it was not until 5th October 1991 that Linus actually released his code: Linux kernel 0.01. With this October anniversary in mind, it’s worth taking a bit of time to review what’s changed to the […]